Free Republic

JUNE 10--Meet Jerry Hawkins. The 43-year-old Virginia man is facing a drunk driving rap after blowing a whopping .32 on a police Breathalyzer test. While that's nothing special, as noted in the below Culpeper Police Department report, Hawkins was pulled over as he tooled down Main Street astride a red riding mower. Hawkins, who reeked of booze, explained to cops that he was headed to the 7-Eleven for gasoline.

By DONNIE JOHNSTON A Rixeyville man has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol on Culpeper's Main Street--on a lawn mower. Town police Sgt. Chris Settle was patrolling the 880 block of North Main Street about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed a man on a red riding lawn mower heading north in the left lane, according to Detective Richard Brooking. At one point, the man stopped in the middle of the lane for almost a minute and carried on a conversation with the driver of a passing vehicle, Brooking said. "After Settle watched the man almost get...

Sportsmen pack meeting Concerned hunters and other gun owners turned out in force yesterday to voice their disapproval of a suggested Culpeper County shooting ordinance. Wearing blaze-orange caps and sporting National Rifle Association insignias, more than 125 outdoorsmen skipped work to form an overflow crowd at the Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee meeting. And the exclamation heard over and over again was a resounding, "This is not Fairfax County!" The gun enthusiasts showed up to complain about a suggested ordinance--a slightly reworked version of a Fairfax County law--that would limit shooting to parcels of land 20 acres or larger and...

William Dranginis says he saw Bigfoot near Culpeper, Va., on a spring day in 1995. He and two friends were using metal detectors in a field when a 7-foot-tall thing with thick hair and bulging muscles jumped from behind a tree. Soon afterward, Dranginis reported his sighting to one of the nation's premier Bigfoot researchers in the Pacific Northwest. The guy laughed at him, Dranginis says. ... It was his initiation into the East Coast Bigfoot hunters, a group whose members say they are a put-upon subculture in the already marginalized world of sasquatch researchers. ...

In Jesus' name, you can't pray. The Culpeper County Ministerial Association isn't bowing down to that "suggestion" from the Culpeper Town Council. The group says it may challenge an Aug. 11 memo from Town Attorney Robert W. Bendall asking ministers not to refer to "Jesus, Christ or any variations of those names" while praying at the opening of council meetings. The memo stems from a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision July 22 ruling that a Great Falls, S.C., legislative prayer violated the First Amendment clause prohibiting the establishment of a state religion. The ruling sparked a similar controversy...

Sheriff investigating golf-course hijinks By DONNIE JOHNSTON Date published: 10/23/2003 A Fauquier County sheriff's deputy has resigned and two others have been "severely" disciplined after they allegedly shot up a golf cart during a tournament at a Culpeper County golf course last week. Culpeper County Sheriff Lee Hart confirmed yesterday that his office is conducting a criminal investigation of the incident and will let Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close decide whether to prosecute. The alleged shooting occurred on Monday, Oct. 13, during a birthday celebration for the wife of one of the officers at South Wales Golf Course near Jeffersonton, Fauquier...